El efecto de los conflictos armados en los tratados

Resumen

The aim of this paper is to examine the main issues posed by the effect of armed conflicts on treaties within the framework of contemporary International Law, taking into account the work being carried out by the International Law Commission (ILC) and that carried out by the International Law Institute in the past. Also dealt with are the jurisprudence of domestic courts and the scarce practice that this topic has generated in recent years. The effect of armed conflicts on treaties is a sphere of treaty law characterized by great uncertainty, not only as concerns the actual practice of States, but also in relation to prevailing law. However, from an examination of the practice of States and the opinion of the doctrine, the general principle of continuity of treaties after the outbreak of hostilities can be deduced, as long as this is possible. Nevertheless, there is evident difficulty in trying to pin down this general principle. For this reason, although in principle one could have doubts as to the usefulness of the work undertaken by the ILC, the inclusion of this topic in their current agenda will at least create a favourable atmosphere for debate and clarify the principal trends in the subject. This study shows how the decision to exclude the effects of armed conflicts on treaties from the Vienna Convention of 1969 was not particularly on target to the extent that it cannot be affirmed that the outbreak of a war or armed conflict is an independent cause of termination or suspension of treaties. As a result, the project of articles of the ILC will probably involve a return to the regulatory framework of the 1969 Vienna Convention, but not to the Convention itself, since the topic was expressly excluded by virtue of article 73. In any case, there is no obstacle to taking the eventual effects of armed conflicts back to the provisions of the 1969 Convention, which are the expression of general International Law.